Midnight Assignation
by PeechTao -Ezra Cross
Summary: How does The Green Hornet deal with all those injuries he inevitably receives in his profession? He can't just keep beating the crap out of Britt Reid, so Kato divines a solution: blackmailing a veterinarian! BRAND NEW LAST CHAPTER UP! YAY!
1. Chapter 1

**ok, so this story is a direct follow up to Party Hardy, then Canned Hunt (so if you haven't read them you may still enjoy this but experience periods of loss, your choice). it is a little sappy, but i enjoy it and that's really all that matters muhahahahaha!**

**will be multiple chapters. why not? still about the same length though.**

**Midnight Assignation**

**Book 6**

**PeechTao**

I knew it wasn't as bad as the last time I got shot, or the last time someone stabbed me in the leg. But it still needed to be looked at. That was Kato's opinion. After nearly losing me in the middle of the Desert Hot Springs I was not about to disagree with him either. I sat quietly in the back seat of the Black Beauty, half asleep across the bench.

God it felt good to be back in that car.

I didn't realize how long I was asleep in the back seats until I felt a hand reach back and gently shake one of my legs. My eyes flicked open. I looked up. We had stopped at a red light, how rare.

Kato was looking back at me with a concerned face. He probably thought I had passed out from blood loss. It wasn't an uncommon notion. More often than not it's exactly why I was asleep on the back seat.

"I'm all right." I assured him. I could tell it was hard for him to believe.

"Really. I am. Did you call the DA? Parker?"

Kato's head nodded. "I called him. Should be picking up that man who had you soon. Him and that seven foot monster."

I chuckled a little. My shoulder hurt. It needed to get stitched. But all I wanted to do was go home and get crawling into my own bed and sleep off whatever high I had traveling in the desert all day. According to Kato I had been gone for two days. I went missing in the middle of the night after Kato and I meant to check out a hot tip about drug smuggling in a local night club. He waited in the car, knowing that all I planned to do was shake down one of our more cooperative informants. I never came back. He spent the better part of the following days beating everyone in the LA underground to a pulp until he found out the one stray piece of information that would lead him to me. Eventually he found the right piece that led him to me.

I can't tell you exactly when he informed me of this. It was some time along the car drive. I was half awake, half listening. The rest of me was someplace home. Someplace cool and alone.

As the Beauty slid foreword through the traffic light and made a left on Harding Way I drifted off again. My shoulder jarred in a chuckhole, reminding me it wasn't in perfect working order but at the same time I wanted nothing more than to ignore it. I was tired of bleeding on the back leather seats. I was tired of freaking Kato out to the point of bullet and stab proofing my coat and vest.

I think this was the echo of a man in need of a good vacation.

"Almost there." Kato said.

I moaned an uh-huh as I rolled over to get comfortable. I pulled my trusty green overcoat from the floor and arranged it over my chest like a blanket. I wondered where Kato was taking me. What veterinarian could I possibly shake down into stitching me up? Obviously Kato was confident about it. I trusted his judgment.

"Do you want me to call Miss Case?" Kato asked. He was pulling at straws to keep me in conversation. He'd been trained into that by my constant concussions and the need to keep me awake and aware. I doubt he realized my lethargy was due to being stuffed in a box for two days.

"Not just yet." I told him groggily. "Later. When we're home I call her. Let her know I'm all right. What did Parker say?"

"He was worried about you." Kato admitted. His eyes kept flicking back to me via the rearview mirror.

"Shouldn't be." I said. "Him or you. Where are we going?"

"We are here." He announced. He slid the car along a sidewalk, shut her down, and spun around to face me. "Do you need help getting out?"

I slowly sat up. I peered out the window to get my bearings. The landscape seemed like West L. A. and upper crust all at once. In the distance the metropolis lights rose. I imagined seeing _the Daily Sentinel's_ familiar risers coming up from the asphalt. It would be nice to get back to my normal profession.

"You should begin this one alone. It may look strange with us together so close."

I raised an eyebrow."Kato, what aren't you telling me? You told me how you tracked me down, you called up some person and said you had a dog hit by a car, now we're parked outside some lot in the middle of the night. And you have yet to answer my question. Where are we?"

Kato pressed his lips together. He'd been keeping something from me and I knew it. I'd known it for a while now but for the most part I tried to pass it off. My friend never kept big secrets from me.

"Well, you know Miss Owens? I brought to party a couple—"

I nodded, indicating I knew exactly who he meant. Glenda Owens made a considerable impression on me a month ago when we first met. She was normal for one. A normal sized girl with normal interests and we shared a lot of those. But what really got to me was when that cute, sweet kid was accosted by me as The Green Hornet and she turned into a red hot firecracker that boldly kicked me in the groin and threatened to punch my lights out. I loved dangerous women. Ever since our meeting I have had an inkling that Kato set me up the entire time.

"I found out from her father that she is Veterinarian. Work in downtown LA. I figure we need a doctor to help out once in a while when is too dangerous to go to hospital. I saw on old rerun of A-Team that a man was friends with a Veterinarian. Gave me the idea."

I shrugged. It hurt. I was actually too tired to make any crack about him watching the A-Team. "She can't have a degree or anything. She's twenty-three."

"Is better than nothing. And you can blackmail her through her father at the office. It is perfect set up."

I didn't like it. I didn't like black mailing Glenda Owens. I much preferred just outright telling her the truth. But I still didn't know her well enough for that. Let alone the fact that too many already knew about my nightly activities. I didn't want to add one more if I didn't have too.

The office light was blocked out momentarily. A lone figure stood in the doorway and looked out into the night. I recognized Owen's car in the parking lot. She was alone. I gave a slight sign to Kato. I agreed with the plan. It was a good one after all. I hadn't thought of that angle but it made perfect sense.

Kato pulled around the block once. I got out during half the loop and headed down a few of the back allies available in the close knit homes along the incline of the Los Angeles streets. The clinic itself was set up in a sort of two story home. A parking lot with room for six cars stretched in front with a narrow alley for another lot of five cars in the back. White lattice covered the bottom of a wood deck with white rungs and a strong railing above. A grass lawn perhaps ten feet wide and as long as the parking lot greeted the clients and their pooches. The front door displayed a sign that said _**Closed**_, in a friendly and inviting way. A way that I decided to now ignore.

It felt wrong muscling in on a good friend like this. But I needed this kind of help in my life. I couldn't keep hitting my normal half with bullets in a crowded street or covering up my illnesses with Mono or anaphylactic attacks. I needed a personal physician. Who better to treat The Hornet than an animal doctor?

I tried the door. It was locked. Three seconds later it wasn't and I was replacing Kato's lock picking set into the pocket of my trousers. I looked about the waiting room. The same hospital look and smell was everywhere. Only this time animal print was the norm. The place was painted in pastel pinks and yellows. A glass case to my left displayed pictures of employees and their families both two and four legged. I picked out the picture of Glenda and her father relatively quickly. She was holding a long haired white cat.

A scale in the corner blinked out zero in mechanical red numbers. Across from it were four plastic chairs. On the other side of the room was the reception desk. It held a high open window. Behind its wall sat a lazy orange tabby sleeping on the counter top. A couple of computers and keyboards hummed with life and cast an eerie blue hue to the wall of files behind them. A single door led back to the patient rooms. I carefully jiggled the handle.

This one came free easily. I pushed it forward, satisfied when it didn't squeak on its rusty hinges. My eyes scanned the passageway. As I took my hand from the knob and moved forward, I missed the form hiding directly behind the doorway until, that is, she leaped out at me.

The door hit directly into my bad shoulder, sending a momentary shock of pain I wasn't prepared for. Then I saw the unmistakable flash of a baseball bat. Aluminum. There was a rough _**Ping**_ as it hit the counter to my left instead of my head. I grabbed it at the base before it could do more damage and yanked it out of Glenda Owen's hands. She only took the opportunity to fly forward, grab my tie around my neck and pull as if to choke me to death. This was silly of course. I didn't tie it like one would normally expect. This tie couldn't be overly tightened, just in case a fellow criminal under lord had just the same idea.

I pulled myself free, warning her off.

This warning she didn't take. She slapped me across the face, hard.

I slapped her right back.

Her chin jutted out defiantly and her hand rose again at once.

I caught it in mid air. "Now, don't." I warned. "Or you might not like the result."

She stole her hand back instantly as if I'd bitten her. "What do you want?" she hissed.

"Help." I said. I pulled my black glove from my partially bleeding shoulder. I held it up to the light of the computer screen for her to see. "That's all. No one gets hurt."

"And if I scream?" she demanded.

"Then you're father over at the _Sentinel_ news desk may have an issue getting to work in the morning. I don't like Britt Reid, hurting you and him in the same moment would just benefit me all the more."

She didn't look half so scared when I actually did slap her. The girl was disturbed in the very least. "I don't want anything to do with you." She muttered. Some of the spice had extracted from her voice, but not completely.

"Sorry to hear it. But you don't have a choice." I replied. As if on cue, the back door swung inward. Kato stood apart from us down the hall, looking menacing.

Glenda only half acknowledged him. "What do you want me for? I'll give you the key. Take whatever drugs you want and just get lost." She went reaching for something behind the desk. I was the faster, holding the drawer she went for closed. Vet hospitals were famous for their silent alarms for just such occasions. I was taking no chances.

"I don't want to rob you. I need your help. If I was here to rob you then I wouldn't have made sure you'd be here waiting for us."

Realization filtered in through her haze of anger. Her eyes narrowed at me. "Hit by car, right? Just great. Not only am I getting held up by The Green Hornet, I'm not even being paid for it. You know it is darn inconvenient to get up in the middle of the night, look all prim and veterinarian proper for a client and possible injured animal then instead get stuck with you. "

I shrugged. "You got the injured animal."

She muttered something under her breath that I didn't catch. "Well, will you let me get into this drawer? I need the key to unlock the drug cabinet anyway unless you're going to be all manly and refuse pain meds."

"Any of it controlled? Things that will be traced?" I asked, glad that the thought occurred to me. Most places were stingy with their special brands of controlled substances. Carefully kept log books existed for everything that could be used on a human. The last thing I wanted was my name to appear in the book as to where all the drugs went off to.

"Everything in the controlled drugs cabinet is recorded." She said as if it was the most common knowledge of all.

"Then leave it."

He eyes rolled skyward. But she didn't go reaching for the drawer again. Instead she walked out of the room and up the hall. She made a sharp right passed the patient rooms and led a winding path to the back of the hospital. I noticed all of the triage-like equipment out along the table. Another door way was open. It was the surgery suite. She indicated the table inside with a toss of her head.

"Go sit in there. Let me grab some things first and I'll be in. what happened?"

The latter had an air of curiosity. I may have just imagined in. Kato was standing in the hall to watch her. I went into the surgery room, trying to ignore the stacks of equipment and the fact that the table was perhaps half the size it needed to be. I sat on its end, the toes of my boots balancing on the floor.

"Just a random stabbing. It happens." I replied off handedly. It was not a lie.

"Does it happen often?" I heard the rattle of drawers opening and closing. Then the _clink_ of glass being shuffled around.

"Often enough." I said bitterly.

She came through the door, hardly bothering to give me a glance. Her hands held a variety of bottles, trays of gauze, and other medical implements that by now I had become somewhat familiar with. She set these articles on a tall metal tray then wheeled the tray next to me.

"Take that jacket off." She commanded.

I didn't snap at her tone like I usually did when someone decided to disrespect my authority. Glenda deserved a little leeway in my book. I shrugged out of my jacket. Kato was in the doorway now, trying to hide his curiosity as he leaned in to get a good look at what was going on.

"Vest too. Get rid of it."

I unbuttoned the vest that just prevented me from the killing blow I should have had. I set it next to me on the surgery table.

Her hands reached forward and probed the vertical slit in my dress shirt. Then she gruffly turned my body to look at the back of me. "Didn't go through." She indicated my shirt and tie. "if you don't want me to tear your shirt open you better lose that too. Or are you the modest kind of crime lord?"

My hand snapped out and grabbed her chin. She stiffened as I brought her in close. "I'm already annoyed about being stabbed. I'm more annoyed at coming here to get it fixed. Don't push me over the edge, kid."

She twisted out of my grip. "I thought you liked the spunky ones." She spat at me.

My hand wrapped around the delicate locket on her neck. The one I had stolen before and given back. I could see her rage welling up. "Don't give me a reason for you to add your father's picture next to your dead mother."

She said nothing to that but I could feel her mood beginning to change. Good. I was getting a little sick and tired of negativity.

I unbuttoned my dress shirt and pulled off my tie. I set them into my rapidly growing pile of clothing. I tensed as her cold fingers danced around my knife wound. She told me in a slightly less upset voice to relax. I tried. Her hand angled my shoulder back. The tension made me wince.

"Can you keep your shoulder like that?" I asked.

"Sure."

She pulled her fingers away and opened a drawer in a tall stainless steel cabinet. Behind two glass doors at the top I could see various instruments wrapped in green cloth and labeled in white scotch tape. Above that was another containing sutures, scalpel blades, and skin glue. She pulled a set of gloves out of the cabinet and set them on her tray.

"How's the bone feel?" she asked.

"Like nothing." I replied. "Hit bone before, doesn't feel like that if it's what you're asking."

She looked at my shoulder again, as if recalling all those years of anatomy class I suddenly really wish she'd taken. At twenty-three how much education could she have had? Let alone the fact it was mainly with four legged creatures instead of masked vigilantes.

"I could take an x-ray to make sure." She said more for herself then for me. Without another question she went out of the surgery suite again. I heard the running of water as she washed up.

_This was a good idea, _I thought to myself. Kato did us a great service finding this girl to help us.

After a few moments she walked back in, her hands waving back and forth as if to dry them out. Her long sleeve black shirt was pushed up to her elbows. "Can you move your arm enough to open that?" she asked, indicating the plastic-wrapped surgical gloves.

I answered by reaching over and peeling them open. I got halfway before she took over the rest. She slid the powder white gloves on, and then turned back to Kato. "You going to stand there like a vulture or give me a hand with this?"

Kato's eyes flicked instinctively to me for direction. In the few brief looks we exchanged he came forward and waited for direction.

"Take that spray, the betadine, and spray it over the wound. Don't be so stingy, just cover it."

Kato did as she asked. He nearly jumped when I did. The crap burned. I grunted at the pain but tried my best to get over it.

"Sorry," she said, sounding like she meant it. "Usually my animals are under anesthesia when I do this. And dogs complain a lot less then people."

Before I could shoot a quick retort, she cut me off.

"Are you going to grit your way through this or let me lidocaine you up? It's pretty much Novocain for your skin. We don't keep track of how much of that we use, so it's not a controlled drug."

I gave a slight nod. "All right."

"You—" her voice trailed off. I knew she was grasping for a name that no one knew. "Bruce Lee. Grab that bottle marked lidocaine out of the cabinet to my left."

Kato went behind her, carefully avoiding her sterile hands and went for one of the ten cabinets stacked together.

"Not that one, that one." She corrected. "Look where I'm pointing."

Kato went for the right cabinet, ran his hand along the many bottles nestled within and came back with the right one. He meant to hand it to her but stopped half way. She couldn't touch anything.

"Grab that syringe." She indicated the one with a white finger. "And pull up as much as you can into it."

I knew Kato would do well at that. He was already well versed at changing my occasional diapers and hooking me to IVs. He pulled the drug up and posed over me with it in his hand.

I suddenly got a little worried.

"You can take the needle off, just angle it in and press the plunger." To me she said. "This is going to sting."

I hadn't really been paying attention. My eyes were watching her hands move around her instruments, laying things out the way she wanted them. The sting of the lidocaine came as a bigger surprise then the betadine.

"Ah!" I exclaimed to him. I half leaped off the table but Kato's hand on my good side kept me in my seat. I resigned myself to growling under my breath and giving Kato a nasty look.

"Easy, tiger. I told you it would sting. But you should be sort of used to that little notion I would think." Glenda shooed Kato away with a gesture and went about looking me over more diligently. "Keep that shoulder pushed back." She reminded me.

I did so, but it was a little harder this time. The feeling of numbness was spreading quickly, quicker then I would have given it credit for. Got to hand it to the doc, her drugs were nice.

So there I sat for maybe the next hour of my life. At some point Kato came over and held on to my arm, pulling it back and out. The numbness was making it hard to do it myself, let alone the exhaustion I was already dealing with. I lost myself watching Glenda work. Her little eyebrows pulled close together in concentration as she cleaned and stitched from bottom out with careful precision.

I'd trust her with my Maltese any day.

If I had a Maltese that is.

* * *

please review! or else you're not allowed to get the next chapter:).


	2. Chapter 2

**So here is part 2, it took a little longer coming up because I am still filling it in with scene clips I like!**

**Reviewers: thanks for all the great feedback, I really do go all egotistical on it:)**

Kira Girl: she is a little sadistic. I'm drawling on a lot of my experience working in a veterinary environment for her character. Most of the medications are spot on. And I've been accidentally stabbed with lidocaine-it hurts like a bear before you go numb. And betadine stings, especially when it accidentally gets into your eyes or cuts you don't exactly realize are there until after you get sprayed. Oh, what does a "train" chapter mean? I find myself a dumb author for this.

Random Anon: thanks for reviewing, especially since you normally don't! It makes me feel extra special to hear from you. Again, dumb author moment, what is a personal canon? I'm learning a bunch of new terms:)

Frog1: what a twist! More to come:) thanks for the feedback!

**Midnight Assignation**

**Peech Tao**

Part 2

"Well, that's that." Owens announced, pulling off one long glove at a time with that familiar _snap_. She looked worn out. I couldn't blame her for it. It was around three thirty in the morning.

My shoulder was beginning to regain some feeling by now. It throbbed, little symphonies of heat spiked through the mask of drugs.

"You're a little dehydrated." She said matter-of-factly. "you should really get some fluids into you. I don't think its bad enough that I should put in an IV but don't go overboard on water either. Get Gatorade."

I slid to my feet as she backed her tray away and set it aside in the corner. She ran her hands through her hair to flatten out the random frizz that escaped her carful bun. I eased back into my clothes as she started to clean up.

Kato handed me my coat and vest.

"Thanks for the fix up." I told her, hoping she understood how much I meant it.

She didn't. "Sure. Not that I had much of an option." She suddenly spun on me, a scalpel blade in her hand. Kato went on the defensive. I did nothing.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked her.

"We aren't going to be meeting like this again." She said her voice as hard as mine could be. She even dared a step toward me. I took a chance thinking she wouldn't decide to cut up a man she had just spent so long fixing.

"Who says?"

"You let my father alone." She went on, brandishing her scalpel. "You touch him and I'll have the cops waiting here for you the next time!"

I smiled. I found that to be highly unlikely. But I went with it anyway. "Fine. So the cops are here. What then? You don't think we'll outrun them? It's a little ridiculous don't you think?" I gave Kato a quick motion. He reached into his shirt and extracted a stack of bills. He set them on the surgery table.

"I don't want your money!" she exclaimed, the scalpel dropping a little.

"What? An hour ago you were complaining about not being able to charge me for taking up your time. Keep it. You'll be hearing from me if I need you again." I headed past her, out the surgery door and up the hallway. Her scalpel forgotten, Glenda followed after me.

"I said I'm not doing this again! Find yourself a different vet, I'm not the girl for you."

I smiled again. She took it for a cocky smirk but to each her own. "Oh, I think you are exactly the girl for me."

I opened the door and slid out. Kato followed behind me.

(:):(:)

"WHAT THE HELL?"

I heard the scream before I even mounted the steps, then the hurried thumps of running feet in tennis shoes. I knew she was making a go for the silent alarm this time before I had a chance to stop her. So I let her do it.

I mounted the short stair case and entered the Veterinary Clinic. A red security light was blinking in the corner, but I knew that really didn't matter. As Kato came through the back door, I was sure we had her boxed in.

"Come on, doctor, don't be that way." I called, cradling my dislocated arm across my middle. "The cops aren't coming tonight."

Her head popped out of one of the exam rooms. She wielded a rather deadly looking broom in one hand and what may have been a pair of blunt scissors in the other. I wondered just how much of my right eye she could stab out with that before Kato dropped kicked her.

"Yes they are!" she replied firmly. "I am done. I told you. You have to stop stalking me, and get out of my life. Now get going before the cops show up. And leave my father alone or I swear I will find you and kill you!"

I chuckled a little. It was the kind of laugh that froze men's spines. To her—I think it had zero affect. Especially when she rushed forward and smacked me with the broom.

Kato half came forward as if to defend me.

I waved him back. "Now come on." I told her.

She came forward again and smacked my dislocated shoulder. Now that got me ticked. I grabbed the stick, pulled it out of her hand and threw it down the hall. Kato looked at it by his foot with a smug grin.

She held her scissors out, an obvious warning, then retreated into the exam room and slammed the door. "The cops ARE coming."

"Not if Bruce Lee disabled the security system they aren't." I said through the door.

She popped back out, shooting a death glare up the hall at my partner.

Not my _**partner**_, partner. My associate.

Kato held up something that vaguely resembled an octopus.

"Is that my—"

"Brain, yes. Well, not your brain, the system's brain. You know what, it doesn't matter. The cops are not on their way. Now get out here, stop being ridiculous, and help me out." I commanded.

She glared at me now, chucked the scissors at my chest but came out of the room anyway. She muttered something dirty under her breath and whispered something more about security cameras. Fine by me, it let me know what to look out for the next time we called her in the middle of the night. She marched me to the back counter, checked my dislocated shoulder, and enlisted Kato's help to set it back in its place.

So as I sat there on the counter like a kid at the pediatrician's office I contemplated calling on Dr. Glenda Owens, under a more normal, non-Green Hornet sort of way.

(:):(:)

"You are going to shoot me?" My voice displayed the lack of faith I had. I had to admit, this was a new tact for her. She hadn't tried to seriously kill me before.

"Yes I am! I—I told you not to come back here and I meant it! Now just, just run off and I won't have to-to-to kill you." Dr. Owens had a pretty basic looking pistol in her hands. She was shaking all over with the adrenaline rush. The gun was pointed at my chest.

Kato stood off to the back of me. He was slightly amused at the situation, but since he wasn't the one wearing Kevlar from his neck to his knees he stayed out of our little lover's quarrel.

"Why the negativity? We have been nothing but completely supportive of your midnight assistance to us." I said.

The gun was still pointed at me. She was shaking like a bowel of Jello in an earthquake.

And then that same stupid car that you hear backfire at the worst possible minute in every Hollywood movie came by at _**just that moment**_. Of course she did just as I expected, she fired the gun. I staggered back, playing the part of the Wounded Knee. I hit the grass by her feet on my back, grasping at my chest where the bullet hit and stuck to my Kevlar lined coat. I even let out a little fake scream to play the part up.

I heard the sudden exclamation from Glenda. She ran down the stairs, the gun hitting the deck where she had been standing. Kato went and picked it up.

Glenda pulled me into her lap. Through the cracks in my eyelids I could see the strained face wracked with guilt.

I waited.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I—Help me!" she looked up at Kato. He just watched the whole thing, completely disinterested. And as her eyes went back to me, I sat up.

"Now, are you done trying to kill me?" I asked. I could have strung it out longer. But, it was a little evil of me to play it up so much already.

Quite unexpectedly, and rather inconveniently, she fainted.

"Great." Kato huffed, crossing his arms and leaning on the porch rail. "We've gone from getting your little scratch stitched to making the doctor faint. This will be long night."

I shrugged. "What, did you have something better to do? Besides, this is not a little scratch, it's like a big scratch."

"It is like you cut yourself shaving, don't be such a pansy."

I pointed a warning finger at him. Kato pointed right back. Together we grabbed the unconscious doc and brought her back into the office.

(:):(:)

"Did you call it in?" I asked from the backseat.

"No, here is the phone." Kato tossed the tracfone back into my hands. I juggled it around as the Black Beauty roared through the streets of L.A. We barreled down Harding Way at break neck speeds. I was slightly worried about picking up a black and white, but I knew all of the city's cops were busy about ten minutes north on one of the biggest drug busts of the century courtesy of you-know-who.

It was me, OK? ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!

Big old Green Hornet me!

So maybe Kato did help a little, but it was mainly me. Our evidence to lead the entire case straight up from the dealers to the head of the snake itself was in my hands alone. And I needed a vet run immediately.

"Stop driving like a granny for crap sake and floor it, Kato!" I yelled from the back as I dialed the emergency vet's number.

Kato whipped around. "I am doing like eighty! You want to drive?"

"If you'd let me and it didn't decide to fire like eighty rockets, sure. I would like to drive!"

Kato started yelling in Japanese and I took the opportunity to start ignoring him again. I put the phone to my lips as the voice came over the line.

"Yes? This is Dr. Glenda Owens."

"'MONMYWAYOVERNOW, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! NUTTER! DON'T DIE ON ME!" I slammed the phone shut, which was a weird thing to do because it wasn't a flip phone. Seriously, when did they go out of style?

"Nutter?" Kato asked. "That is stupid name for dog."

"The last two times you called him Fluffy. I was not taking Fluffy to the vet one more time he has honestly been through enough. Besides, I had a dog named Nutter, and he was a cool frickin' dog."

Kato drifted the car down Ross Way at sixty.

"I never knew you had dog."

"I grew up with that thing until he started having breathing problems. My dad sent him to live on a farm in Wyoming."

Kato suddenly snorted.

"What?" I demanded.

"I don't think he went to live on farm." Kato accused.

I passed it off. What did he know? He probably ate dogs for crying out loud! Either way, I didn't have a chance to reply with the insanity of his driving skills on top of the sweet handling of the Beauty's supped up suspension. We spent the next ten minutes skirting the city's back streets and racing red lights like a scene out of The Fast and the Furious. We were pulling into the parking lot just as the doctor was mounting the stairs with her keys in her hand. She saw the Black Beauty roll through. I got out of the back seat fluidly as Kato rolled out again to hide the car.

"Are you serious?" She screamed from the porch. "Are you honestly serious? Come on, now! I saw you like, five days ago! I got a call yesterday about a REAL hit by car and I almost completely ignored it because of you!" she stamped her foot. "I swear, I could just shoot you myself!"

"Oh, don't be so upset. I brought you a dog." I told her, coming up the stairs and displaying the little creature in my hands.

So, it wasn't exactly little. It was a fifty-pound mutt. But it was still a dog, regardless that it smelled like sewer.

She started forward. Obviously I threw her for a loop this time. "It—it is a dog isn't it?" Her eyes went instantly to me and they looked like a mother bear about to disembowel an innocent hiker. "What did you do to it!"

I handed the dog to her, took the keys from her hand, and worked on the office lock. "Nothing. He's evidence. Or what's inside him is evidence. Him and about eighty-three of his kennel mates are evidence. They're being used as mules for drugs." I popped the lock. She went in ahead of me. The standard _ping_ of an alarm sounded.

"The alarm code is 3342" She called to me. She had gone to the corner, using one foot to press the on button for the scale.

I punched the number into the alarm box and the _ping_ stopped. I locked the front door again and watched as she weighed the dog. 56lbs. I wasn't too far off. She scooped her arms up under the animal and began to waddle him toward the back of the office. I went right to her and took the animal from her arms. "Just lead the way all right." I told her.

Reluctantly she did just that. She opened one of the exam rooms and I hopped the animal on the table.

"What kind of drugs?" Glenda asked.

"Crack cocaine."

Her eyes flipped up to me from checking over the mutt's mouth. "How much of it?"

I held my hand out about a foot from each other. "Condom wrapper. Real cocaine. Maybe laced with something deadly. This is my only survivor and the only one with the drugs intact. I need him alive."

She slowly nodded her head. "You're ok though?"

I was taken a little aback. She was worried about me. Me! Suddenly I got that little kid flutter in my stomach as an image of us running across a field of daisies flew into my mind. "I'm fine." I assured her.

She cocked her fist back and bashed me on the chin.

It surprised me. I staggered a little, unable to pay her back for it right away.

"HOW DARE YOU!" She roared at me. "You come in here, playing on my love for animals with your coked up dog and expect me to help you? You are just the worst, most evil, I—I just—" she stammered, so overwhelmingly angry she couldn't go on.

The sick dog lay on the table and watched our exchange with little to no interest. I put my hands on her shoulders. I had to fight to keep control of her so she didn't whip around and slug me again.

"Look. You got this wrong, kid. I'm not the guy that did this. I'm the guy that walked in and grabbed the one piece of evidence that can lead me to the real leader. I need to get that cocaine analyzed. That's my job. Yours is to make sure the dog lives long enough to lick the jury's faces and get me a conviction. Can you do that?"

She gave me a strange look. "Conviction? What do you care about that for?"

I ignored the question. "What do we need to do next?"

Glenda shook off whatever contempt she held for me just moments before. She went back into veterinarian mode. "Um. I need to fire the x-ray up, see where the drugs went and if they leaking out yet. He's going to need surgery. I can't call a technician, can I?"

I thought about it. It was a bad idea to bring another body into this convoluted mess at midnight I kept creating. "No." I said. "Sorry. It's just not safe."

"Then you're going to have to be my tech. You or Bruce out there dismantling my newly installed security camera."

I popped a corner of my mouth up. "Yeah, Bruce Lee's good at that. I'll give you a hand."

(:):(:)

"How you doing? You going to make it? Do you want me to give you something?"

"Oh, God."

"Just take a deep breath, ok? Are you going to pass out?"

"Stick head between legs!"

"Maybe you should lay down."

I felt like a chick as I ducked out of the surgery suite. My fedora had been traded for a blue disposable hospital cap. A white surgical mask covered my face beneath the shade of my domino eye mask. I leaned on the counter outside, my head hanging between my shoulders as if it would roll off onto the floor. My stomach spasmed and I felt like I was about to lose it.

"Don't throw up on my counter!" I heard Glenda snap. She was leaning over the filleted animal abdomen in front of her to look at my now green face. "Bathroom passed the exam rooms and to the right!"

I rushed there immediately, pulling my surgical mask along the way. I just barely had the chance to flip the lid on the toilet before I was up-chucking in the bowl.

I couldn't stand watching the surgery any longer. How was it normal for someone to knock an animal unconscious, shave its fur off, then cut into it with a scalpel and move its intestines around? As she was stacking the piles of intestines and whatever else off to the side of the table she just reached in and scooped out the dog's stomach and started hacking away. Then the smell of the stomach acids—

I threw up again.

My hand reached out, pushing the handle for the toilet down until last night's dinner was swirling away. I leaned over the sink, gargling straight water and splashing it on my face. I checked my complexion in the mirror. I don't think I've ever been so pale in my life.

A knock came to the door and I looked up to see Kato standing there.

"She has the drugs. I need you to stand by door if she needs help. It is my turn to—" He never finished before he lunged for the toilet himself.

Some manly masked men we made!

Without any excitement I trudged through the hospital and back to the surgery room. I stood with my back against the door frame, within earshot if I were needed but at the same time not daring to look in.

"How you doing? You know you lasted longer than most laymen do. Usually the first sight of blood gets them." There was a hint of humor in her voice.

"Yeah, thanks for the warning." I muttered back.

"You wouldn't let me bring in a tech, and I can't do surgery alone in case something goes wrong. How's Bruce?"

"Enjoying the taste of dinner twice around." I replied.

"Awesome. Well, don't expect sympathy from me. I would be sleeping right now if it wasn't for you and your decision to do a drug bust."

I chuckled a little. "Ah, but where would your fun be then?"

"I actually rather enjoy horseback riding. I think I might prefer that to hanging around you at three a.m. every other morning."

I heard a sucking sound and swallowed hard to keep my next nauseous wave from overtaking me. "So," I asked, trying to take up a new conversation to keep my stomach settled or at least distracted. "You're awful young for this whole vet think aren't you?"

I heard a sigh. "Well, I went to a private school. We did a lot of college classes in my high school. Vet school wasn't too bad. My father moved us to New York so I could get in-state residency. He worked for the Times then. After my mother—he moved us here. Figured a different coastline would be good for us."

"How did she die?" I hadn't intended to ask. I just needed to keep the conversation going. But my mind kept flickering to my own mother and her untimely death.

"You don't want to know." She said, her voice much lower.

I turned my head, forgot I shouldn't look, and stared at my shoes again. "I'm curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat. I'm a vet, I did the necropsy."

"Oh come on already. I can find out for myself if I want to." I half threatened. Kato appeared from the hallway. He looked just as bad as me.

I heard the surprising snap of her white gloves peeling off. She came to me in the doorway. I tried to ignore her smock covered in red. "You really want to know? We've got masked crazies in Gotham too. My mother was killed by one of them. That's why we moved here, as far away from them as we could get. And now, I'm being blackmailed by the only masked vigilante on the Western seaboard."

I bit the inside of my lip. How could I have known that? How could I possibly have guessed? Britt Reid didn't even know it, and I was him too occasionally.

I did what I did best in situations like this. I cracked a joke. "You know, vigilante can also mean guardian in Old English."

She shook her head tiredly. She held out the condom wrapped crack cocaine and plopped it into my hand before I realized what it was. My brain took longer than it should have interpreting the image of the drugs. When it finely clicked, I was beating Kato for the bathroom.

(:):(:)

"Now how did this one happen?"

I shrugged. "I had a bat, he had a tree."

"Next time you should carry a bigger bat."

I was lying on my back in a small room, smaller then the surgery suite. A lighted box was erected over my head. The outline of an X shined down and designated a particular area of my chest. Glenda stood over me, flipping switches on the x-ray unit that took up the vast majority of the far wall. She was wearing a blue lead vest from shoulders to ankles. Is it weird to think she looked kind of sexy in it?

"That what he thought." I said, indicating Kato who stood in the doorway, wearing the same gown. "Shouldn't I be wearing something too?"

Glenda cocked an eyebrow. She stole a lead vest off the wall and dropped it none-too-gently on my groin. This caused me to spring up and hit my head of the metal X-ray box. I reverberated back down, a hand to my eyebrow.

"Crap!" I growled.

I heard the faintest tickle of laughter from Glenda. I knew she enjoyed watching me take the hit but it was the first time I had heard the emotion of glee from her during our relationship as The Green Hornet and Doctor Veterinarian. At least she wasn't pulling a scalpel on me, although she did go running for the panic alarm when I walked through the door. She even screamed! Well I didn't take to kindly to that and after having Kato tie her to a chair for a little while with a gag in her mouth she finely calmed down enough to see what was wrong with me.

The bill for tonight: possible busted ribs.

"Now stay still for a minute. You'll see the lights flicker and hear a click. Don't move."

I did as she said.

She left us after the x-ray took and went to develop it in the red-lit closest a couple doors away. Kato already checked it for any second exists, so he stayed beside me, helping me back into a seated position. I held an arm across my busted ribs. I didn't think they were broken, but it was a good idea to get them checked out anyway.

As I sat there catching my breath we watched a shadow of black in a white dr.'s coat race passed the doorway heading for the parking lot. I didn't have to say a thing to Kato. He was already on his way out to catch my wayward doctor. A few minutes and screams later, Glenda was stomping back up the hall to check on the x-ray and Kato was standing behind her waiting.

Couldn't blame a girl for trying.

Final diagnosis was no breaks. She taped me up and Kato and I were back on the road, minus a few hundred dollars for our service fee.

(:):(:)

"Hey doc? Where you hiding?" I called into the office. I launched myself through the front door, dragging Kato along behind me. I couldn't help sounding a little bit cocky. This was the first time I had the pleasure of dragging my friend through the office doors instead of the other way around. And it wasn't even my fault! I loved it. I got to drive the Black Beauty on our getaway as Kato laid in the backseat shouting and exclaiming at every little wrong turn. It was fun to hear him. It was fun to drive. It was fun calling up Dr. Glenda Owens myself and telling her that I had my own little puppy hit by a car and I'd be right on over.

Her car was in the lot like always. She was standing at the door. When she saw the sleek black car pull around the block to hide out, she rolled her eyes and ceased waiting for me. I grabbed Kato out of the back seat and dragged him up the stairs and into the office.

"What? You're walking today?" I heard the wry voice appear from somewhere near the surgery room. I left Kato on one of the office chairs and went to find her.

"Me? I'm fine." I said, coming around the corner.

She was standing next to the familiar set of instruments she always had ready when I made a hit-by-car call. Her oxygen rack was ready in the corner. A few towels and gloves and the basket full of gauze. Her eyes flicked to me, or over me. "You look fine." She stated.

"I am. It's K—" I bit my tongue. "My associate."

She turned toward me a little and stopped putting things away. "Where is he? He all right?"

"If he were, I wouldn't be here would I?"

New she came forward. I knew she'd follow me out so I lead her to Kato in the waiting room. "Got ourselves caught in a firefight. Literally. He was stuck pretty long in the warehouse."

Kato coughed considerably as she lifted his head. She took a penlight out of her white coat pocket. She tested his eyes with it. Kato kept on coughing until he couldn't stand to have his head up any longer. He brought his fist up to his mouth and hacked his lungs out.

Her head flipped up to mine to see the smug kind of smile playing on my lips.

"You're just loving this aren't you?" she asked.

I nodded. "Oh yeah."

"Aren't you friends?"

"Sure are."

"Is this payback?"

"It is now." I said, snickering.

She actually smiled a little and nodded. "All right. Let's get him hooked up to the oxygen machine and maybe we'll take an x-ray of you too to see how bad your lungs are. You know this is starting to get a little monotonous. I should just open up a masked crime lord concierge office at night for all the sleep I keep missing out on."

"Well, we appreciate your donation to the cause." I said to her, helping Kato up and dragging him into the back office.

"Keep meeting like this though, and people might start talking." Glenda replied. She went for the oxygen machine, cranked a few complicated looking knobs, and handed Kato a plastic hose. "Hold that by your nose."

He coughed and nodded and followed her direction.

I went to the counter and hopped up on it, watching as our private, black-mailed veterinarian worked on my little blue wombat. It was interesting being on this side of her stethoscope but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling either. I was enjoying it to the fullest.

My legs swung subconsciously as she went back and forth with the familiar x-ray plates and such. I swear by now I could just about do half her work for her. The trouble with Kato's and my nightly antics was the constant need for such runs as this.

I suddenly began to chuckle a little.

She looked at me. A smile hiding on her face. "What?"

"You know, he was actually hit by a car too!" I started laughing a little. I had gotten so used to being around Glenda by this time that I didn't bother hiding under my gruff demeanor. Besides, that only made her mad and uncooperative.

Kato called me something I recognized as a dirty word in Mandalorian.

No, wait, Mandarin.

"You hit me with the car!" he shouted in English. His voice was thick and raspy.

"I didn't mean too." I kept laughing a little. "But it's still funny. All the times we come here for fido being aced by a car and this time it really was my fido!"

Glenda began to snicker also. Kato looked beat and upset. I knew I'd be paying for this later. "Well, are you going to sit there and laugh at him, Hornet, or are you going to help me take his x-ray?"

I pushed off the counter and sauntered over. "I guess I'll help out. If not, then he might just beat the crap out of me when he feels better."

"In that case you'd deserve it and I won't be the one woken up in the middle of the night to take care of you." She warned, both of us really. "What were you doing in a burning warehouse anyway? Setting the fire?"

"Smoking out a couple drug dealers." I said.

"Can't have any competition." She said.

"That's just about right."

She sat Kato on the x-ray table, but before she turned it on she looked sincerely at me. "What's the truth? The God's honest truth? You can't be all that bad or I wouldn't still be alive and meeting you like this. It would be too risky. Every time I call the cops you squeeze through like you own them. Every man you go against doesn't just get taken over, he gets destroyed. You're ruining more criminal empires then you're running."

I tried to hide the grin. Glenda was smart. Eventually she would get the same itching inkling that many others had too. What was my game. The real game. Thus far she was the only civilian that had any close relationship with Kato and I and didn't know the truth about us.

She came in closer when I didn't answer right away. "Hornet, are you really on our side? I've seen bad guys. I've lived in Gotham itself. We have our own little masked man there too. I can't keep out this feeling that you aren't as bad as everyone thinks. Am I right?"

I shrugged and said nothing.

"And you haven't threatened me yet tonight."

"Do you want to be threatened?" I asked, adding an edge to my voice. She didn't take the bait.

She came a little closer. Fewer inches of warming air separating us. "You wouldn't really hurt my dad would you?"

Funny, I hadn't mentioned killing her father for a few weeks now.

"Maybe I would."

Her head shook slowly. "No. I don't think so."

I was enjoying the closeness. I though, somewhere in her smart little mind, she was too. But that could just be my perverted half trying to seek release. I learned a good lesson from Lenore Case that when women wanted nothing to do with me I usually thought exactly the opposite. I was trying to be more grown up about this relationship.

Holy Crap I just used the R word.

I masked my sudden discomfort and need to drawl away from her. Instead Kato's next fit of blue-turning coughing interrupted our private moment. She pulled away and set the machine.

I stepped out of the room rather than don one of her heavy lead gowns. I knew Kato was safe in her hands. We had an understanding like that. Instead I took a short tour of the office I had come to know almost as well as my own at the _Sentinel_. There were three panic buttons. So far, she had only ever managed to press one of them, and that was last week when we showed up with my splintered thumb.

All right, so it was a stupid excuse to wake her up, but she was cute as Hell in her little white coat. And thus far I had no reason whatsoever to call on her as my more normal counterpart. Maybe I was just looking for my Lois Lane or my damsel in distress. Kato thought I was being lovesick. The DA laughed his can off when I had to tell him about it.

The only thing that has saved me some nights from being arrested in the veterinary parking lot was the watchful eyes of the DA. If a sweep was coming by, he'd give me a signal and Kato would roll off. Or Parker would completely throw the cops off my trail himself. It was rare, but sometimes completely necessary.

Apparently that did not help me tonight.

A black and white was parked outside, its lights going and siren off. Two burly men stepped out and were heading across the grass for the front door.

I rushed away from the door, flattening myself against a wall before disappearing into the back of the office. Glenda was just coming out of the x-ray processing room. I know she didn't punch the panic button. Maybe the cops picked out the Black Beauty and decided to take a look for themselves.

Glenda saw the alarm in my eyes.

"What is it?" she asked.

I ran forward, drawing her in and pulling her aside.

A heavy thumping hit the door frame.

Her eyes widened as she waited for me to explain. My hand was over her mouth to prevent a scream. I was all seriousness now. I pulled her close to me. We hid in the dark hallway as I had flipped the light switch off.

"Dr. Owens?" the loud voice boomed through the hospital.

Two massive pupils flew up to my chin, the closest thing to her.

"Don't scream." I whispered into her ear. "Tell me why they're here." I pulled my hand away.

"They check up on me at midnight." She told me just as hushed. I wanted to smile at that. She wasn't screaming yet.

"Why haven't I seen them before?"

"You always come after midnight. This is early for you." She replied coyly.

"Hornet!"

The two of us jumped at the sound of my name. KATO! As one we rushed into the x-ray room and filled in my companion on what was going on with a series of swift whispers and swifter gestures. Kato was threatening to have another coughing fit. She needed to get him hooked back up to some oxygen.

The thumping on the door continued. The Officer called a little louder.

"I have to say something to him." Glenda whispered.

I agreed. We got Kato up and back to the oxygen machine. Then the two of us went for the door. I stayed behind the front desk and out of view. I didn't have to warn her not to say anything. Something told me she would do just fine.

* * *

ok, so i left this on a little bit of a cliffhanger. just to make you come back and read some more. i may have just one more chapter, but we'll see how long it is and if i need to split it in half.

keep reviewing, or you wont get another chapter for a while:)

i'll be evil like that:)


	3. Chapter 3

**Random Anon:** _thanks for clearing up that info for me! it makes total sense now and I am quite honored honestly. Please enjoy the (so far) final chapter!_

**Frog1: **_ah, them cliffhangers. Gotta love them. Well, this is supposedly the ending. I'll decide how true that remains in the future with more inspiration_

_**Belphegor: **__thanks for being such a faithful follower. It's awesome to drag readers through multiple books and watch their enjoyment unfold. I have inserted a new scene that was not in my original story just for Kato. I feel I have been somewhat ignoring him thus far. I must do him better in the future. Perhaps I will do a Kato-centric fic soon. Hmmmmmmm . . . ._

**Lou Serbio:** _Glenda is cute isn't she? I will have to kill her. Thanks for the criticism. I love honesty when it comes to reviews. I don't mean to make him sound ignorant. I am improving his speech overtime to develop his character some. All of my stories are aimed at showing Britt and Kato develop from the bungling duo to The Green Hornet displayed in the old 1960s TV show. In that way, Kato does get muddled a little. As I mentioned to Belphegor I have been terrible neglecting the poor character and hope to improve upon him in the future. One thing that I do like about his distinct diction is I can make a conversation involving three people, never say who is speaking, and you can pick Kato right out by his voice, Britt by his personality, and whoever is left can be guessed. Am taking your criticism to heart though, and will improve. Thanks!_

Ok, so that's all the reviews, let's get on with the crap already. this following chapter is again me toying with my poor puppet of characters. Hope you like it, if not I do and that's all that matters.

Disclaimer: I own my characters alone.

**Midnight Assignation**

**Chapter 3**

_PeechTao_

"Officer Michaels! Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't hear you! I had a late emergency and I'm bone tired." Glenda said to the police hanging by the door. I think one was about to bust the thing down.

"Dr. Owens." The officer said. "Saw the lights; usually you've cleared out by now."

"I wish." She smiled. She angled her body to the side, as if inviting the officers in.

I wanted to throw something at her.

"Come on in! I still have a bunch of files to fill out, but you're welcome to hang around. I can get a pot of coffee going."

I went into my jacket, extracted the Hornet Gun and waited in a perfect position. If they stepped in, I was ready to hit them. Which would suck. The cops would be on top me in no time. I wouldn't be able to come back to the office. I'd need another vet to shake down.

But I didn't _want_ another veterinarian.

"That's all right. If everything's good, we'll check back in about an hour." The officers gave the traditional going off and headed down the stairs. Glenda stayed at the door, waving and smiling until the car started up. When the door shut, I was already next to her.

"That was a pretty bold move." I whispered as if the cops could somehow still hear.

Her eyes flicked to me.

They were green. I never noticed that before.

"It was. But I'm your hostage aren't I?"

"Are you?" I asked.

Her hand reached up, her fingers lacing around my tie until she could pull me down toward her.

There was that familiar couple inches of air separating us.

Suddenly a cell phone went off and it belonged to me. I muttered a small sorry and flipped the cell open.

"_Hornet? Look, we're having some trouble on the West End of LA. Another arson. I need you to get there soon as you can. My tip says it's Jimmy the Turret. Slimy weasel is untouchable! I need you to get him before he skips state lines and ends up in Nevada!"_

I nodded my head at the DA's words. I was looking into the emerald pools of Glenda. "I'll be there." I snapped the phone shut. To Glenda I said: "Take care of him for a bit. I'll be back."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Really? Terminator?"

"I could do worse." I replied gruffly. I lunged forward, grasping her body against mine and landing a kiss to her lips. Whether she struggled against it or not, I didn't know. I was out the door like a shot.

(:):(:)

"Just call her. Ask for Dr. Owens."

"I know who to ask for, I am not calling! She's your girlfriend!"

"She is NOT my girlfriend, not yet, now just ask for her!" I shoved the phone at Kato. He shoved back, I shoved back, he shoved back, I shoved back . . .

"_Hello? Hope Veterinary Office? How can I help you?"_

The phone was in Kato's hand, so he answered it. "Oh, uh, hi I need to speak to Dr. Owens. Please."

"_Who's calling?"_

Kato put his hand over the receiver and looked at me. "She wants to know who is calling. I can't say Britt Reid."

In the corner the DA, BJ Parker was sipping at a glass of Bacardi and rum. He loved this whole situation up. To him it was ridiculous and awesome all at once. A fantastic way to spend the afternoon sitting beside my completely empty pool and watching Kato try to get me a date.

"Tell them it's The Green Hornet." BJ said, laughing a little to himself.

"Then the whole office will know what's going on." I shot back.

"_Hello? Sir?"_

Kato made a preemptive decision. "Tell her it is Bruce Lee."

I slapped a hand over my face. "What?"

Kato shrugged. It was better than nothing. He held the phone away from his head. "She hung up on me!" he declared.

"You said you were Bruce Lee, of course she hung up on you!" I exclaimed.

"But I don't get it; she would know who it was." Kato handed the phone to me.

"Yeah, but the staff thinks you're some crazy stalker or something." I said. I redialed the number. "Now just say it's Mr. Lee to talk to her."

Kato held the phone to his ear. He waited for the woman to answer, explained to her that Mr. Lee wished to pass on a private message to Dr. Owens.

"_Mr. Lee? Mr. Bruce Lee? Please, don't waste our time. If this is an emergency you can call the emergency clinic at—"_

I took the phone.

"Listen. I am a close friend of Dr. Owens and I have a message to pass to her."

"A message of love and longing." I heard Parker laugh out in his corner. I honestly almost lost it.

"_Sure you do_." The receptionist growled. I have to admit, I was completely intimidated by her. I had the mental image of her being a seven foot tall black woman about to reach through the phone and slap me. And I knew a few things about being slapped.

"Will you just deliver the frickin' message lady or do I have to come down there and tell her myself?"

"_Dr. Owens is not in the office today."_

Kato's jaw dropped.

I hung up the phone.

For a few minutes we sat there and looked at each other. BJ started laughing manically. I think it was time for Kato and me to cut him off from the open bar. Casey just reappeared outside carrying a tray of snacks. She sat it in front of her, not offering to share it with anyone. Firstly because Parker was so drunk he may suffocate if he inhaled food too fast, secondly because she was still mad as Hell at me for crashing her father's fundraiser a few months ago.

I'm sure she heard everything we had gone through over the last half hour as Kato and I bickered back and forth about calling the office, then calling Glenda, then what I should say if she so happen to grace my disposable cell phone with her voice.

"Well, what do we do now?" Kato asked.

"She not in today?" Casey asked.

Told you.

"No. So now Britt has nothing to do with himself but ask me to go order a pizza or something." Kato said. "Or make him a coffee."

I pointed an evil looking finger at him. If a finger could look evil that is. "Hey, if it wasn't in Chinese I could so make my own coffee. I swear, my place is slowly being turned into Little China. By the time I turn around my walls will be lined in geishas or something."

Kato's eyes rolled. "For the last time, geishas are Japanese and I am Chinese. I know Kung Fu, not Ju-Di-Ju or whatever you say. I speak Mandarin, not Korean and after you lost eight of the rockets on the Black Beauty driving out without me a week ago you are never allowed to drive ever again. In fact I may make you sit in the back seat from now on."

I meant to throw my glass at his head. But I realized I was drinking out of a plastic cup for some reason. Instead I decided to rush across the table, pick him up, and tackle him into the pool.

Then I realized there wasn't any water in the pool. Whoops.

After not dying from landing on the dry concrete Kato and I proceeded to try and beat the crap out of each other. BJ pulled his chair over to the side of the pool to watch and enjoy it. Casey for her part I couldn't quite see. I was in the middle of trying to flip Kato over my head and pile drive him into the pool bottom. We had ceased being angry at each other the minute we realized there was no water around. Now it was just a good spar to keep ourselves limber under the guise of him insulting my intelligence.

Or that may just be what I tell myself to make me feel better.

We stopped simultaneously, him with a fistful of my hair as he was mule kicking my side. I had my arms braced against his as I poised to bite down. Casey was dangling the phone over the side of the pool. We both heard the voice.

"Hello? This is Dr. Owens, is anyone there?"

I scrambled out of Kato's grip and rushed for the phone. In a six foot pool it was too high up to reach, so Casey dropped it.

I missed the catch.

Kato dove.

He hit me.

The phone hit the pool bottom.

And it smashed into about ten billion pieces.

"Crap!" I shouted. "Darn cheap phones. Kato, next mission is to create a supper awesome untraceable cell phone that we don't have to keep disposing every three calls."

Kato gave me a look. "Oh, sure, let me just pull that one out of my butt and dust it off. It is not my fault you have a crush."

_**BLAM!**_

One nicely placed punch to the side of his head and Kato was down for the count. Sweet, I totally won that time and I planned on holding it over his head for the next five months.

"It is so your fault." I told his unconscious form as I walked towards the shallow end to get out. "You introduced us."

(:):(:)

I hadn't intended on driving by. There wasn't necessarily a need for it. The past couple months I had been remarkably cautious and healthy. No random stabbings no shoot outs, anything relatively deadly or sickening even though I tried my hardest to get the flu from Kato and Casey. I even went so far as to volunteer my "humanitarian" efforts at the latest swine flu hospital ward. Nothing. I was healthy as a frickin' horse and nothing short of a masochistic self-mutilation would get me into the door of my favorite private physician. No reason at all to see the woman who was quickly becoming my fascination.

So when Kato and I had the option of taking the main highway for our nightly rounds or the back roadways that lead towards the clinic, I chose the clinic. At least I could see if she was still around by this time of night. It was already just passed midnight. She should have been long gone by eight at the latest.

Kato knew it to. I could tell he intended on reminding me of just that but one look at my face held his tongue. He'd allow me my little rendezvous if it made me feel better. And it did, so he shut up.

He glided the Black Beauty through the dim-lit streets of the upper west end of L.A.. Familiar streets rolled by the windows. I counted the traffic lights. Two blocks away is when the feeling hit like a punch to my gut.

"Slow down!"

Kato's head shot sideways to me in disbelief. The entire drive I had been riding him to floor it.

"Slow down!" I snapped. The feeling rising to pure alarm.

Kato jabbed the brake and the car's excellent system responded with a jarring screech.

"Go around back. Take the alley. Run silent." I commanded. My tone left no room for argument, but Kato couldn't resist his curiosity at my strange command.

He guided the Chrysler into the back alleys behind the office. "What are you thinking, boss?" he asked, a worried edge in his voice.

"Something' s not right. I don't know what it is."

Kat was silent. He'd gotten used to these sudden feelings of mine. Sometimes it was nothing. Other times ninjas were jumping out of the trees with Tommy guns. We pulled around to the back parking lot.

Her car was still in the lot behind the office

"Still here." Kato remarked.

"Pull into the ally." I said, checking my gun and the Hornet Sting. "I'll take the front entrance. Circle once in case I flush anyone out, then come in the back way."

"You got it, Boss."

I opened the door and slid out around the back of the car, my mind reeling with the little tidbits of information as I moved.

It couldn't be a real emergency call.

No owner's cars in the front or back lots.

Lights were off.

Security light dead.

Black spray paint over security camera.

Front door smashed inward.

I fought to keep myself from running in, gun blazing. I was worried about Glenda, but I knew if she was a hostage, my sudden entrance may make her a victim. _Slow_, I told myself, _keep your head_. I eased the door open, my gas gun at the ready.

The front office seemed intact beside the splintered fragments of left over door. I walked quietly toward the front desk window. I peered around the corner to get a glimpse of the wall with the exam rooms.

Nothing.

I pushed through the door to the back of the office. To my immediate left was the junction that led to the back corner and surgery. On my right were the exam rooms. Directly in front of me was the back door and just before and to the right of that was the bathroom, blood work machines, and controlled drugs cabinets.

I went left towards the surgery area. And that's when I first saw her.

My heart draped to my feet. Like running through water I lunged forward and down.

DEAD!

She had to be dead. I lost my breath with utter shock. It didn't make sense. Why was she here? Why?

"Oh God." I muttered, unable to think of anything else. I reached for the rubber tubing, the IV line, that circled her neck and pulled it free.

She lay like a broken mannequin. Her arms and legs splayed beneath her. Her head lay at an odd angle. One a conscious person may have corrected. The IV line strangled her fair neck to a sore purple red. Her eyes were half opened with a forehead plastered in blood.

I heard a shuffle of bodies run for the back door. Two maybe three men. I never saw them. They were by the controlled drug cabinets.

Junkies just getting a cheap score.

I pulled Glenda up by her white court and uncharacteristically delicate blouse. She wore black dress pants, just the size to hug her curves right.

I didn't feel a pulse at first and my body went numb to the very core. I heard the back door swing open again. I knew who it must be.

"Kato!" I screamed, reservation flying the coop. "She's not breathing!"

There was a series of footfalls as I sat, doing all I could not to lose it. I didn't even have the strength to check a pulse myself.

"They got away." Came his quiet voice as he ghosted beside me, stricken pale. He did what I couldn't and checked to see if I was holding nothing more than a corpse.

It was hard for him to tell.

"Ste—stethoscope. Ka—the wall." I mumbled, cradling Glenda's body against mine as if to shove my life back into it.

Kato took a moment to translate stethoscope to Chinese and make the connection. He went to the wall, grabbed it off a hook and dropped back to me. With his typical reserve, he listened to her chest, which turned out to be rather awkward on a girl without seemingly taking advantage of her. The last thing Kato wanted to do was feel up my girl right in front of me. The state I was in, I'd drop him on his rear!

Before he looked up with that shocked expression I heard the voice.

"You—You ca—came?"

If you asked me in that moment if I could fly, I would definitely say yes. I would climb to the top of the clinic and dive off into a pit of burning vipers.

I exhaled a breath that I had been holding since I saw her form.

Kato was practically bouncing in glee.

"I thought you. It was late. I heard the door and I thought you . . ." Glenda's voice kept trailing off. She was dazed, disoriented. Probably suffering a severe concussion or worse. She could be bleeding into her brain as we spoke.

"How many fingers do you see?" I asked, holding up a gloved hand. I didn't know what it meant if she answered wrong. It was bad, I knew that.

"Three." She said, hardly glancing at them. Her emerald eyes were on me alone. They were full of shock.

It was the right answer. "Ka—" I stopped myself halfway. "Bruce, bring the Beauty around. She needs a hospital."

Kato rushed away instantly.

I looked back to Glenda, adjusting her in my arms. Her left hand grasped my coat, stroking along the fibers.

"You came." She whispered.

I nodded.

"When _I_ needed _you_."

"Yes, I did."

Her expression smoothed some, as if at last the cloud of doubt had been removed for good. Her face pressed down into my shoulder as her hand tightened on my arm.

"It feels strange, your coat."

I couldn't hide my grin. She always did provide the strangest conversation starters. When I first met her, now over six months ago as Britt Reid at a fundraising dinner we had sat and discussed tapeworms. That made a little more sense now, seeing as she was a veterinarian.

"Kevlar. Keeps me from more frequent trips here." I explained.

"Pity." She said. I knew what it meant. She wished there were more excuses for us to meet.

"Bruce Lee here objected to my constant injuries. I couldn't blame him."

"Good old Bruce." She sighed.

There was the rapid honk of a horn. Kato was ready out front.

I didn't ask if she could walk. I just slipped my arm under her legs, the other cupping her body. I dry lifted her up and carried her out into the hall and waiting room, then through the front door. She wasn't a size two. She wasn't even a six. But I suppose when your adrenaline is pumping and the woman you're learning how to love is in danger it doesn't matter. She could have been a great blue whale for all my body cared! I was getting her to the hospital!

I slid her feet first into the Black Beauty's back seat, which Kato had cleverly parked not a foot from the clinic's bottom step. I followed behind her. Glenda rewrapped herself in my arms, closing my coat around her. Chills rocked her when we touched.

Funny, they went through me too.

"Hospital." I said, though I didn't have to. Kato was already pulling out of the parking lot.

"I thought it was you." She said again.

"You were there late." I pointed out.

Glenda's chin nodded beneath mine. God it felt good to be so close to her. Nothing was enough to keep me from dipping my face down to her rich auburn hair and inhaling that beautiful scent of lavender and vanilla. My mind did a back flip.

"I got called in." She explained. "Nothing big. Vomiting. Owners wouldn't leave, took forever to clean up to go. I was heading out when I heard the door. I thought—I hoped—"

Being so close was driving me crazy. I could hardly think straight. "You wanted it to be me."

Another nod. I wonder if she could hear my heart beating like a drum out of my chest.

"That's why I drove by." I admitted. "I had to see if you were there. I wanted to come sooner. I didn't have an excuse to."

"You've been busy. I read about it in the papers, wondering what may happen to you. When you'll go too far and need me again."

I wanted to tell her that I always needed her. But I kept my mouth shut. My heart thumping.

"I tried to hate you." She went on. "I kept comparing you to my mother's killer in Gotham. I wanted to turn you in. But—but you're on our side. I know it."

"I've never admitted to it." I said.

Suddenly her body shifted up off of me. I craved fro that touch again. It felt like someone had reached right up and pulled my mask from my face, the emptiness was so complete. Glenda sat up beside me. Emerald eyes meeting my own dark browns.

"I don't want to have feelings for a man in a mask. I don't want to care so much about you. I'm probably just a natural ally. Like Bruce. Someone that accomplishes a much needed action. I'd be an idiot to think I'm the only one."

I brushed the hair from her face, taking care of the blow to the head she had received. "I can't convince you, or prove to you, you're the only girl to ever turn my eye this way. But you are."

Almost as if our bodies knew what each other's was planning we came together. Her lips pressed to mine with such vigorousness I had never known. My arms circled her body, drawing her closer than ever before. Her hands laced through my hair as we kissed passionately. Mutually we separated, breathless with emotion. It was only for a moment as we collected ourselves before pressing together again. My body screamed against hers. A passing image of the blushing Kato behind the wheel passed through my mind before fireworks replaced it. I drew my lips from hers, playing along her neck as I groaned with effort to control myself from running positively wild.

She leaned into my touch, intoxicated on her ordeal and my rescue. We remained entangled for too little a time before diplomacy and courtesy overcame the both of us. She swung gingerly back off or my lap. I was dizzy, so was she.

When enough time seemed to elapse and the two of us could again speak, she was the first.

"My life is so complicated."

I cocked an eyebrow at her, regardless that it was hidden beneath my mask.

"I'm falling for a guy calling himself The Green Hornet who dresses like a crime fighter in a trench coat." She elaborated. Her hand went to her forehead.

"I like complicated." I told her. "Besides, it's safer if you don't know who I am. Trust me."

"I do."

I think the words coming out of Glenda's mouth were a surprise even to her. The hand began to massage her temples now as she winced.

"You ok?"

"Headache." She elaborated. "Or migraine. Whichever comes with a sudden concussion."

"Migraine." I said. "I've had them." I tapped one of the Black Beauty's inner side panels. It sprang free, revealing a champagne cooler full of ice. I placed a cup full into my handkerchief and gave it to her. "Here, this'll help."

She stared at the compartment with surprise as she took it from my hand. "Boy, this is some ride you have."

I grinned. "Thank Bruce Lee. He built her from scratch and a couple flecks of black paint. Maybe a toothpick."

Kato, having felt the whole time like he was being the fifth wheel on a private moment had so far kept his eyes locked on the road, his hands white knuckling the steering wheel. At the sound of his Glenda-given name he made the smallest acknowledgement to the compliment. He thought she was a sweet kid too, enough so that he indulged my need to pass by more often then I should. We were still devising a way for me, or Britt Reid, to see her socially.

"Almost there." Kato said.

She flashed a look at me. "Do I have to go in? Can't I just—"

"You have to." I ordered. "You were just beaten and strangled unconscious by junkies robbing your place. You aren't getting out of this with a Band-Aid."

"You can't go in with me either." Her voice tinged of disappointment.

"No. If I do, it'll raise a lot of questions. Questions neither of us can afford to answer. My mask is good for shielding my family from my enemies. Intimidation alone safe guards allies of The Green Hornet."

It was logical, what an interesting turn of events for me. Glenda was intelligent (another strange occurrence for me). She could understand what I was saying without explaining further. I took a card from my vest pocket. With a pen provided by Glenda, I scrawled a number on the back and handed it over.

"In case you ever need me, this ever happens again, or anyone else makes a move against you or the clinic. I am officially your protection from now on. If you call I will be there in ten minutes, most." I cocked my head to Kato. "Bruce will swear to that."

"Sure will." Kato said with determination.

She turned the card over in her hand. The lights of the hospital rose over the crest of the LA hill. We'd be there in no time.

"What if it isn't an emergency? And I just want to talk, or see you?" she swallowed hard after she said it. Her palms were sweating a little.

Mine were too.

"Then use the email. I'll answer it. I can only be out at night like this. Otherwise it is too dangerous. We found that out through experience."

"We are here." Kato announced, pulling the Beauty along a dim-lit side street flanking the emergency room entrance. He flipped a few switches and the purring engine died out.

"Can you walk all right?" I asked.

She handed me the handkerchief and ice. "Yes, I think so."

"Better forget how you get here. Or blame a cab."

"Sure, Hornet." She said.

"Let me know how you are in the morning."

She grimaced. "You won't turn into a mouse by then? And you're car won't be a pumpkin?"

This time it was my turn to draw forward, pressing my lips against hers. All the feral passion welling again. It was painful to force myself away.

"You would be surprised what the Black Beauty can do. Turning into a pumpkin is not one of its assets."

Her hand lingered over my cheek, running her thumb and finger under my mask. I wasn't afraid she may remove it.

"Well then, I'll see you around." She said huskily under her breath.

What I would have cone to keep her there! I even considered having Kato whip the duck tape out of the trunk. Instead, I watched her move forward, tapping against Kato's back. When his head turned slightly, she was already setting a kiss against his cheek.

"Thanks, whoever-you-are. You've been so sweet."

I have seen Kato's skin turn white, red, black (when I accidentally left him in that warehouse fire) and once blue. I have yet to see him turn pink until this day.

Embarrassed, ashamed, or touched beyond belief, he said a silent little "Thank-you".

She leaned across me and popped my side door open and slid over my lap to stand on the concrete sidewalk facing the ER. With a last grin she shut the door behind her. I rolled down my window and watched her shrink away as Kato steered us toward home.

I swung forward again when the hospital was no longer in sight. Being absorbed in my thought, replaying over and over the moment our bodies collided. I missed Kato's question the first fifty or so times he said it.

One last scream and ten minutes into the future I finely eased out of my fog.

"Huh?" I asked, a wistful smile slapped over my face.

"I said where are we going now? We've been driving in circles while you were mentally soliciting Miss Owen!"

I snorted. _**Soliciting**_. Tired of the back seat, I climbed over the passenger headrest to sit next to Kato.

"To the pet store!" I declared.

He was unable to surmise a proper question.

"I found out how Britt Reid is going to visit Glenda Owens. She'll be our vet. Now get us to a shelter, we are SO adopting a dog. Like, now. And it is going to be the most emaciated, diabetic, death's door dog we can find! We'll be at the office every other day!"

Kato laughed a little. "Ok. But I get to name him. And I am not walking him!"

"The maid can walk him. But we are getting a dog."

"Who is open this time of night? And who will give a dog to The Green Hornet?"

"Fine! God, you are so needy. We'll wait till morning. Home, Kato!"


	4. Chapter 4

All right, so I intended on finishing this on the previous chapter, but this came to me suddenly after a review by Random Anon. What kind of dog would Britt Reid end up with? Well, I always had a specific kind in mind so this is my little plug (so to speak) on it.

**Midnight Assignation**

**Chapter 4**

_Peech Tao_

"Holy crap, he is awesome. Isn't he awesome. I love it. Who knew you could get a dog already house trained? Listen to him breathing! I love him. Kato, we need to get him. I want him. He's absolutely perfect."

"He is the first dog you have seen. He smells. He snores. Why would you want anything that ugly?"

"He does not smell!" I inhaled a little. "Oh, wait, yeah he does smell a little. But we can bathe him. So what if he snores? He's not sleeping in your bed. Dog's fart and drool and poop to, are you going to hold that against him?"

The friendly kennel worker standing over us piped in at _just_ the right moment. "Actually, this dog breed isn't known to drool."

I gave Kato two big eyes. "He doesn't even drool! Did you hear that? I love him. He'll be Nutter 2!"

Kato pounced on me. "Oh no you don't! I get to name him that was our deal."

I held in my little victory dance. I had the Chinese man now. There was no way he could refuse me. "Well just don't name him something stupid, or something I can't pronounce. That wouldn't be fair and I'll just give him a stupid nickname to spite you."

The kennel worker was smiling brilliantly at us with the excitement of finding the little mongrel a home. The paperwork was in her hand before we realized she'd gone to get it. Her first question pertained to the suitability of Kato and me as the little animal's new legal guardians. I swear, it was like adopting a Cambodian baby the hoops we had to go through! I was prepared for that. I knew exactly what it took to get a good dog (or in this case a diabetic, overweight, asthmatic one) from the L.A. shelter. The trouble was I had yet to discuss my plan with Kato, which wasn't exactly abnormal. At this point he was used to trusting my judgment and made fewer objections to the insanity that occasionally came rolling from my lips. But this—this was a whole new level.

"So, who will be the primary caregiver?" she asked, clipboard in hand.

I wrapped one arm around Kato's shoulder, stuffing the dog between us. We looked like some trio!

"Both of us. We live at the same address."

The woman's eyes warmed some as she began to catch my drift. "And should I put your names separately on the form?"

I nodded a little, conspiratorially. "That would be fantastic. So far it isn't quite legal or official yet."

A big smile from her. "Oh, of course. And you will, of course, be able to provide adequate veterinary care? You see, this dog here is special needs, he's going to require an owner who has the financial stability to take care of him properly."

I made a passing no-big-deal gesture. "I'm Britt Reid, the owner of the _Daily Sentinel_ and all around billionaire. We don't have any kids, so we need something special to, you know, nurture." I shrugged a little. "I'm just such a big animal lover. It was a natural step for us to take."

She leaned forward, patting my knee. "Oh, that is so sweet! We have many couples just like you come in to fill that void in their lives."

Suddenly Kato was on to me. My arm across his shoulder prevented him from shooting to his feet and racing from the room to scald his skin and burn his clothes. I was dying on the inside. But it was a funny kind of dying that comes right before Kato actually does try to kill me.

I leaned my head on his shoulder. Kato looked petrified of what I may decide to do next. "I just love the idea of rescuing a dog. Putting my money to good use to make a difference. If it does something emotionally for us, that is wonderful too."

That sealed it. We got the dog.

(:):(:)

"I am going to kill you." Kato snarled from the driver's seat. "I am just—I—you _h__ù__nd__à__n_! _H__ěnkú __de l__ǎ__ob__á__n_!" And that's about as far as I got before I stopped trying to understand what he was saying.

I knew he'd be mad, but we got what we went there for. Little Nutter 2 was chillin' on the front seat, wheezing in and out of his whistling nose beside us. His front paws were on the dashboard as he looked out the windshield. In the midst of Kato's continued Chinese rant, Nutter leaned over and laid one long, sloppy lick right up and down Kato's cheek.

I swear my driver flew out of his seat as if I had done it myself. Maybe he thought it was me, which would make it twice as funny. When he realized it was the dog, and the dog was looking at him with his huge bulging eyes which may or may not need plastic surgery along with his nose job, Kato's sweet little heart just melted inside. Suddenly my introduction as us being gay lovers in search of a child replacement was long forgotten.

"He is cute." Kato admitted. "And you are not naming him something stupid."

I threw my hands in the air. "Well, Kato, I would like to know just what kind of brilliant name you have in store."

"We agreed. I name him." Kato glanced from the rode to me for confirmation.

I conceded. After all, he didn't do too bad naming the Black Beauty. How bad could this be? "Fine, agreed. You get to name him."

"You swear? You will not change his name?"

"Yes, sheesh, I swear. You're really making me nervous here."

"Do not be nervous. I have a great name. It is—"

(:):(:)

"Elvis? Elvis Reid?"

I stood up when the receptionist called my name. The little black pug trailing beside me on a loose leash. He coughed and gagged and wheezed like the overweight (30lb!) roly poly that he was and followed behind me to get to the exam room. The nurse explained that Dr. Owens would be in shortly, and Elvis the Pug and I were left to wait by ourselves.

For a fat little thing he was surprisingly mobile. Not ten seconds after I sat down he had already jumped into my lap and rolled onto his back for a belly scratch. God, I loved this dog. Nothing fazed him! And at only a year old he was going to live with me forever! Or at least until The Green Hornet side of my life got me killed. Then I'd bequeath him to Dr. Owens, whether she knew it or not.

I had to admit, at first I did everything I could to convince Kato out of naming our dog Elvis. But the more I thought about it, the more I kind of liked it. He deserved a big name for a small dog. Like naming a two-pound squeaker toy Zeus or Thor. It was fitting for him. And pugs were totally the guy's small dog. I was not getting a Yorkie, a Maltese, or Heaven-forbid a frickin Chihuahua football. Kato and I had already agreed into getting a small dog, less poop to pick up. After having to deal with Nutter-the-cocaine-filled-dog a few months ago, I decided that even medium-sized was too big for me to keep hauling around. A pug was perfect. And when that lady brought his snorting, sneezing, waddling, butt over to me, I knew I found the dog that'd have me at the vet as often as I wanted to be.

This isn't to say that Elvis wasn't awesome in his own right. Day two and he was following Kato to his room. Day three and he was sleeping in Kato's bed. Day four and Kato was curling up with him like the thing was a teddy bear or something. I never even heard the guy complain about the snoring! And he complains about my snoring when I live half the house away! Elvis goes out to my car with me and hops in for drives around town. He goes to the office with me now, following me on my rounds with the editors before passing out in his own corner of the room. Kato actually made Elvis a miniature helmet and special harness so the two could roll around on his motorcycle too.

Yeah, Elvis was **so** a part of The Hornet family now.

The exam room door opened and my favorite white coat headed in. There was a brief moment where my imagination overcame me. I thought for at least a split second that recognition in her eyes revealed to her I was in fact her midnight lover. But, suddenly, it was replaced by the look I had been expecting. The one of a casual acquaintance who shared a lunch some six months ago.

"Britt? Wow, what a surprise! I saw the name but I had no idea!" I stood as we shared a slight friendly hug. It was nowhere near long enough.

"Yeah, I didn't realize you were a vet, how crazy is that? God, look at how cute you are like that. And I though you in a dinner dress was great looking!" I laid on the charm. She blushed.

"Awe, that's really sweet, Britt. I heard you've got a new friend, huh?"

I held up the squirming Elvis. "Yup. Just adopted him. Now, he's got a lot of issues, I knew it when I got him. Actually its one of the reasons I got him. It's just so hard to get special needs dogs like him a home and, well, I have plenty of time and money to spend on him too."

I saw her heart beginning to melt a little at my Kato-prepared speech.

"That is just fantastic. You know I wish more people were like you. Instead of spending a few thousand dollars on a pedigree puppy I wish more of them would just adopt from a shelter like you." Her hands were running along Elvis's lumps and rolls. Her stethoscope removed and I waited as she listened to his fat little heart beating almost as fast as mine.

Wow, it was different to see her during the day like this. Here I was standing aside wanted to do nothing but hoist her over my shoulder and run off into the pale moonlight and she had absolutely no idea I was her secret lover. It was like hitting a home run in the first inning then coming up to bat in the second.

Ok, so we never actually got to third base, but we were pretty darn close.

The stethoscope came off. She looked at his ears, his nose, and everything else attached to my new pet. Then, final assessment over, she looked at me.

"Well, you definitely got a fixer-upper." She announced. "Currently he hasn't got much of a nose to breathe out of. That's why he likes to pant and snort. I bet he snores to, am I right?"

"Like a beast." I replied.

"His eyes are pretty outset too. He does run the risk of them protruding to the point of, well, removal."

That took me by surprise. "Like his eyes can pop out of his head?"

"In a manner of speaking, yeah, kinda."

Genuine concern for my little buddy caused my hand to fly to my face. "Poor Elvis. I mean, crap that is serious."

"Well, it doesn't have to be." She admitted. "He needs the Rhinoplasty. We can help his eyes a little bit too and it will reduce the risk of him having an issue in the future. Also, using a harness instead of a collar can help to."

I was agreeing instantly. "Yeah, of course. Whatever he needs I am more than happy to do. Oh, and we've already started him on a bit of a diet."

She smiled. "Yeah, I was going to mention that. Maybe fifteen pounds is appropriate for him. Perhaps less. Right now he has that bloated tick look to him."

I picked Elvis's front legs up and squished our faces together. "Are you a bloated tick? Huh? Are you a little bloated Elvis tick? Don't worry, the King lost his figure too. I think someone just spoiled you. Has Kato been giving you coffee?"

I could see she was a little touched by my gushy-guy moment. But I couldn't help it. I just loved that squishy little face.

"So, what do you think, doc? When should we set this up?" I asked.

"I'd say as soon as you can. He's young. He'll recover pretty well from it all. And being able to breathe would make him a remarkably happier dog. Now, I haven't ever done the surgery before, so the practice owner, Dr. Grant, will perform it while I assist. Honestly, this is a fantastic learning experience for me, Britt, I'm very excited by it."

Now this was something I did not expect. "I thought you were the only veterinarian here."

She shrugged. "Oh no, there's about four of us that work together. I'm the youngest, so I usually train with one of the doctors during the day, like a residency, and I'm in charge of the emergency during the night. Usually they are a quick patch up. Anything serious I call for back up or just send them to the 24 hour clinic. You're lucky you got me today. Usually I'm off on Thursdays."

"Well, fancy that." I said. "I think you just got yourself a long-time client." I scooped Elvis up and set him on the floor as I walked beside Dr. Glenda Owens to the reception desk. It was a path I knew remarkably well. One that was now so different to see during the day.

The receptionist I had pictured as a seven-foot tall, bad attitude black woman was in fact a five foot ten bad attitude black woman. And of course she grabbed my file to check me out. Her eyes flew up and down my body, noted something I may not have liked, and I heard her harrumph with contempt.

"Well, Britt, we'll see you two soon." Glenda said, her grin spreading. "Wow, it really was great that you came today."

"Mm, hmm." The receptionist said. "Planned it that way."

Glenda gave her a funny look.

"Asked for you by name. I know, I made the appointment. Says it right here." The receptionist went on. She wielded my file like a deadly weapon. I resisted the urge to go on the defensive. "You better keep off Dr. Owens here. I know your type. Guys comin' in here, trying to get in her lab coat. I won't stand for it, ya hear? I'll bounce you out of that door 'fore you know it was me that kicked ya!"

Glenda placed a gentle hand on my arm. "Oh, don't mind Annette. She looks out for me. Annette, Britt is a great friend and my father's boss over at the _Daily Sentinel_. He's not a money monger."

Suddenly Annette looked at me totally differently. "Got money?" she asked.

"I own the paper." I said.

"You got a brother?"

"I got a chauffeur set to inherit all of my assets upon my untimely demise." I retorted.

"Oh, Lord! I saw that cute little Chinese guy rolling around the block in that pretty little Rolls Royce. I'll take him just fine!" She laughed to no one in particular and went to the computer to finish processing my paper work.

Glenda gave me a secret wink, and then headed to her next appointment.

I wondered if it was a wink of I'll see you later tiger, or a wink of I totally know you are The Green Hornet, stud. I knew I was going to see her soon. As Britt Reid, and maybe even The Hornet too.

Ah, love!

I looked down at my dog. "Come on, Elvis. Let's rock and roll."

* * *

now isn't that all just too cute? i totally see Britt Reid with a pug. i don't know why. it just fits. and, even funnier, if you go on petfinder, you will totally find a young black pug for adoption named Elvis. how sweet is that?

Review please!


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